Rubies and Junipers' Warm-up Tournament
by shadowsilv3r
Summary: Ruby is bored one day waiting for the Vytal Festival Tournament; so she decides to host one between the members of Teams RWBY and JNPR. What could possibly go wrong? Author's note: Not much of a plot outside the tournament. Outcome of each fight will be decided by voters on my profile page polls. Rated T for violence. DUH!
1. Pyrrha Nikos Vs Nora Valkyrie

**This is nothing more an attempt to improve my fighting scenes for my other stories; so don't expect much of a plot outside of the tournament.**

**Also, to avoid any bias, I'm leaving the outcome of each fight to the readers who vote on the polls on my profile page, the first fight however has been decided by my three brothers voting ahead of time.**

**Read, review, and give me any constructive criticism nicely; it would be much appreciated.**

**Quarter-Finals:**

**Pyrrha Nikos vs. Nora Valkyrie**

"We should have a tournament," Ruby Rose said out of the blue as she lay atop her haphazardly made bunk bed, starring off into space.

"We already have a tournament planned you dunce," Ruby's partner, Weiss Schnee scolded, she did not bother to take her eyes from her homework assignment from Professor Oobleck's class as she added, "The Vytal Festival, any of this ringing a bell?"

"I mean a warm-up tournament, something to help pass the time while waiting for the Vytal Festival," The scythe-wielder then suddenly sat up straight, rocking the already unstable bed, "I know we'll invite Team JNPR to partake in it! Come on!"

"Wait wha-," The next thing Weiss knew, she wasn't sitting on her bed working on her homework, she was standing in the hallway with Ruby holding her shoulder while knocking feverishly on the door to team JNPR's dorm room.

"What is it- OW!" Juane Arc, Leader of Team JNPR and beacon's resident dork, tried to answer as he opened the door only to have Ruby's knocking hit him in the face.

"Oh, we're sorry Juane," Ruby apologized as the blonde haired teen used his aura to quickly patch up his nose.

"Just so you know, when she says we, she really means only her," Weiss said coldly as she brushed off Ruby's hand from her shoulder.

"It's okay, no harm done," Juane said modestly, "So, what's up?"

"Well Weiss and I were thinking-"

"Again, only her,"

"-That we should have a warm-up tournament in preparation for the Vytal Festival and we were wondering if you and your team would join us?" Ruby offered excitedly.

"Ahh, I don't know Ruby, me and my team have a lot of homework to finish up, so I don't think we can join your tournament," Juane reasoned, though in reality he still wasn't confident in his fighting skills and didn't want to embarrass himself in front of everyone again.

"Ooooooo, did I hear tournament?!" An excited voice came from behind Juane, shortly afterwards Nora Valkyrie, Team JNPR's resident 'wild child', appeared, "Can we join? Can we join? Can we join?"

"Of course!" Ruby replied, much to Weiss and Juane's disappointment.

"YAAAAAAYYYYYY!" Nora cheered.

"What's the commotion about?" Pyrrha Nikos asked as she poked her red haired head out the door.

"Ruby and Weiss invited us to partake in a tournament!" Nora shouted excited as she bounced up and down.

"Once again, I'm not associated in this whatsoever," Weiss insisted yet again.

"That would be interesting," Pyrrha stated as she turned to her leader, "It can give everyone a chance to see your new skills, Juane,"

"I don't know Pyrrha," Juane said worriedly as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Come on Juane, I bet you'll go far in the tournament," Ruby pleaded. Juane decided to concede, finding no point in arguing.

"Hey, Ren you want to join?" Nora called to her lifelong friend who was still inside their dorm room.

"Sure, why not," Ren's voice answered back from the room.

""Well, let me know how everything goes," Weiss said dismissively while walking back towards her dorm, only for Ruby to put her hand on her shoulder again.

'_Oh no,'_ Weiss thought as she suddenly found herself in front of the entrance to the school library.

"Ruby, will you stop that!" Weiss complained about her partner's obsessive use of dragging her around with her semblance.

"Come on Weiss, it will be fun, besides we could use the practice," Ruby pleaded as she walked into the library to find Blake and Yang. Weiss silently conceded while knowing this was going to go wrong somehow.

V

Later that day, both Team RWBY and Team JNPR stood at one of the practice fields out in the fields around Beacon Academy. The arena was actually a dust powered environment generation field. One only had to input one of several preset environments, such as desert, forest, or urban, into the nearby computer terminal and an arena would be procedurally generated.

"Okay and welcome to the first ever warm up tournament!" Ruby shouted in an announcer like voice as she produced a small paper bag, In here you will draw a number from One to Four, merely find the opponent with the same number and that will be your opponent for the first round!"

"You're seriously going to determine who fights who through a stupid lottery?" Weiss questioned, heavily annoyed.

"It does seem fair," Blake Belladonna, Team RWBY's only Faunus, pointed out as she stepped forward as the first one to put her hand in the back and pulled out a piece of paper with a number written on it in red, "I got a four,"

Ruby gave the bag another shake as she offered to go next; she reached in and pulled out a three.

After everyone was finished drawing their numbers, Pyrrha and Nora each got a One; while Juane and Weiss drew the twos, and finally Ren and Yang drew the last three and four respectively.

"Okay now that you all know your first opponents, we can begin!" Ruby said cheerily, "Pyrrha, Nora, since you two each drew the ones; you get to fight first,"

"Sure,"

"Yay!"

With that everyone else went to the stands to observe the coming fight. Ruby went to the terminal and set the Environment Generation Field to 'Random' then headed to the stands to watch. Once the two fighters entered the arena; a holographic grid system appeared before solidifying into an ancient ruin setting. Tall stone pillars stood in columns along a grassy field; some were knocked down and damaged, while others were piled atop one another to form archways.

The two Girls synced up their scrolls to their respective auras, which in turn appeared on the big screen overlooking the arena, both huntresses' auras were in the green.

Ruby then stood up and started the countdown.

"Ready!" Pyrrha turned her weapon, milo, into its sword form and held her shield, Akoúo, in a defensive position as she expected an immediate grenade barrage from Nora.

"Set!" Nora turned her weapon Magnhild, into its hammer form and lazily held it with one hand while the mallet of the weapon laid on the ground behind her, much to Pyrrha's confusion.

"GO!" With that Nora pulled the trigger on Magnhild and propelled herself into the air with a beeline for Pyrrha, who had to dodge out of the way as the Hammer-wielder smashed into the ground.

Quickly shifting Milo into rifle mode, Pyrrha unloaded a few rounds into Nora, who quickly blocked or dodged most of the shots, but one of them managed to hit her in the shoulder. The onlookers noticed Nora's Aura dropping down a degree.

Valkyrie immediately retaliated with shifting Magnhild to its grenade-launcher form and began firing a barrage of missiles at the Spartan, who ducked and heaved through the stone pillars to avoid the fire, knocking down some of pillars in the process.

One of the missiles flew true however and hit Pyrrha square in the chest; sending her flying and landing on the ground slightly dazed. Nora wasn't done however as she unloaded another missile at Pyrrha, who quickly used her semblance to stop the grenade in midair, reversed it, and sent it flying at Nora. The wild child fired another grenade to intercept the one fired back, and the two collided in a large plume of pink smoke.

Nora tried to look through the smoke to no avail, then a shield cut through the smoke like a large copper Frisbee and smacked her in the face, stunning her, she managed to see Pyrrha jump out of the smoke several feet in the air while catching Akoúo on the rebound and swung Milo at Nora, hitting her in the side.

It became a melee at that point, Nora switching Magnhild back to hammer form to engage the Spartan who fought hard using Akoúo to block attacks and Milo to counter strike. While both were strong and fast, it was clear that Nora had the strength and Pyrrha the speed; as the hammer wielder's swings forced Pyrrha to give up ground, and Pyrrha's strikes were too quick and precise for Nora to properly block and parry.

Nora suddenly slammed Magnhild against Akoúo and fired a grenade to propel herself away from Pyrrha, shifting from hammer to launcher, Nora used the new distance to her advantage and unloaded grenade after grenade at Pyrrha.

Once the smoked cleared there was no sign of the Spartan, Nora looked around feverishly for her fellow teammate, only to suddenly get hit by a hail of rifle shots from atop the pillars. The hammer wielder fire a grenade shot at the pillar Pyrrha was situated at and knocked it down, the Spartan jumped into the air planning to land on the hammer-wielder, who propelled herself into the air as well, the two huntresses collided in midair and both landed hard and exhausted. When they looked at the board displaying their Auras, it was clear who had won.

"Victory goes to Nora!" Ruby shouted, unaware of the lien Weiss was begrudgingly handing over to Yang.

That was fun!" Nora cheered as she offered her hand to the kneeling Pyrrha, who graciously accepted.

"I thought you were an expert in tournaments Pyrrha," Juane questioned as he walked down to the arena to prepare for his fight with Weiss.

The Spartan merely shrugged as she said, "You win some, you lose some,"

_**Author's note:**_

**Go to my profile page and vote who you think should win the next fight: Weiss or Juane?**


	2. Weiss Schnee Vs Jaune Arc

**Quarter-Finals**

**Weiss Schnee vs. Jaune Arc**

Weiss knew something would go wrong in this tournament, and it manifested in the form of the blundering idiot she had to face off against as her first opponent.

The Heiress wanted nothing to do with this tournament and thought it best to give the fight over to her first opponent. Now if it had been someone confident in their ability like for example Yang or Pyrrha, she could put up a good fight, lose, and still have her dignity intact. But of course she had to get stuck with Jaune Arc, the foolish, overconfident, obsessive flirt as her first opponent. She still wanted nothing to do with the tournament, but losing or forfeiting to someone like that would serve a massive blow to her pride and dignity.

"Hey, Weiss?" _'Oh dust, is he going to flirt with me again?'_, "You're still not mad about the whole 'Snow Angel' thing are you?"

Weiss' only response was switching Myrtenaster, her multi action dust rapier, to its ice dust function.

"Oh dust,"

Ruby imputed 'random' into the Environment generation field as the place shifted from the old ruins to a simple stadium made of marble.

"Ready!" The swordsman and swordswoman both synced up their scrolls; both of which read green.

"Set!" Jaune brought his shield up with his sword alongside it as he took a relaxed, defensive posture like Pyrrha had taught him. While Weiss turned herself sideways in favor of her left hand which held her rapier. She held her head up, shoulders back, and left foot forward _'not that forward'_ she mentally scolded herself.

In the stands Yang was placing bets with Nora, Pyrrha and even Ren on who would win; much to the red hooded girl's obliviousness to the exchange.

"GO!" and with that, Weiss gave her weapon a swing coupled with a twirl, sending ice missiles towards the knight; who instinctively brought his shield up in a full defensive block and took the brunt of the attack. Ice formed around his shield and actually encased his forearm to the shield. Jaune panicked and tried to shake the ice off to no effect.

As the knight did this, the fencer was sliding on the ground like an ice-skater towards him with Myrtenaster poised and ready to impale. Jaune noticed this at the last moment and brought up his shield again; the impact of rapier to shield actually shattering the ice into sharp projectiles that hit both the knight and the fencer, eating away at their respective auras.

The score board showed both auras dropping, but Weiss' dropped a little lower then Jaune's, not because more ice had hit her, but because Juane's aura reserve was more significant in size.

Jaune managed to follow up with a swing of his shield and knocked Weiss back; not much aura was lost in that attack, but it did help in the knight pull off a proper swing at the heiress with his sword. Knocking another bit of aura from her.

'_This is ridiculous, I need to remove that shield,'_ Weiss thought angrily as she switched her weapon to its white dust form. She quickly summoned a glyph underneath her feet and used it to propel herself backwards to get some distance from her opponent as she told herself _'he has no ranged attacks, so he'll have to close the distance,'_

Sure enough, Jaune broke out into a sprint towards her, but Weiss had planned that and summoned another glyph, this time under his feet. The unsuspecting knight was propelled forward towards the heiress as he stumbled over his own feet and newfound momentum. Weiss quickly dodged out of the way, but not before taking a swing at the teen turned projectile; knocking his shield off of his arm and sent flying in the opposite direction of its owner.

Now without his defenses, Weiss took the opportunity and shifted Myrtenaster to its red dust setting and sent fireballs at Jaune while he was still trying to recover from his stumble. The boy quickly started running and dodging the fireballs but ultimately got hit in the chest by one, was it not for his aura he would have been burnt to a crisp.

The heiress then shifted to the light blue dust and sent an ice missile at the knight, freezing his foot to the ground. As Jaune struggles to free himself from the ice shackle, Weiss shifted Myrtenaster to its violet dust setting and skated towards the boy with her strength enhancing dust. When she reached him she gave a sharp upward swing so strong it freed Jaune of the ice and sent him flying. Weiss quickly used a glyph to propel herself upwards to Jaune's elevation and gave another swing of her violet enhanced sword, this time downwards so he hit the ground hard. The heiress then twisted her body to have her heels over her head and summoned a glyph to launch herself down at the ground, planning to skewer Jaune to the marble floor.

Luckily, Jaune recovered quickly enough to dodge out of the way as Weiss hit the ground. He then began a mad dash for his shield which was still lying on the ground at one end of the stadium.

During this whole battle everyone was watching with great amusement, Weiss still had most of her aura intact, and even though Jaune had received most of the hits struck this battle, he was only missing about a third of his own aura.

Jaune barely managed to get his shield and turn in time to block Weiss' thrust. The knight gave a swing of his sword but the fencer back flipped to avoid the attack. Once she recovered she gave another thrust of her rapier as Jaune gave a defensive swing of his own weapon, knocking the heiress' weapon aside. He then gave a thrust of his own, hitting her in the stomach.

Weiss shifted Myrtenaster to the red dust setting and mixed it with the glyph she summoned at their feet, causing a repulsive effect that sent the two sword-wielders flying into the air. Weiss was the first one to recover and shifted to violet while striking Jaune multiple times before sending to the ground again.

Jaune slowly righted himself as Weiss graciously landed on her feet a few meters away from him. He smiled goofily besides his weakened state.

"What are you smiling at, you buffoon?" Weiss scolded.

But Jaune's smile only widened as he said dazedly, "you're really cute when you're angry,"

Weiss saw red as she launched herself forward and gave a violet and anger enhanced swing at the goofball, sending him out of the arena and into a tree.

"Weiss wins!" Ruby shouted as Yang raked in more lien behind her back.

"Wait, what?" Weiss said in shock once she calmed down from her anger induced adrenaline high, she then looked at the score board, "he's not even in the red!"

"The rules of a Vytal style tournament duel clearly state that knocking your opponent out of the arena is viewed as a win," Blake pointed out with her book smarts.

Weiss turned her gaze to the tree Jaune had flown into. Pyrrha and Ren where busy getting a dazed Jaune out of said tree, birds and snowflakes spinning around his head as he mumbled something about 'being in love'.

It suddenly dawned on Weiss that she had won the round and had to partake in the tournament even longer, leaving her homework assignment to collect dust as she did this.

She glared daggers at Jaune as she mumbled under her breath, "You insufferable little-

**Author's note:**

**Due to a series of unrelated events, Weiss had to win the tournament because of accidental tampering of the poll leaving them at a tie and as such, went to a coin flip on who would win. So as I prepare the next poll: Ruby Rose vs. Lie Ren. I want to make a few things clear. 1) Don't inform me that you have no idea where the vote button is on my profile page, it is on top of said page. Someone did and I foolishly offered to vote for him, yet he found it later and voted anyway. So I had to disqualify one vote that was already there on the poll. 2) If you intend to vote, please sign in/make an account and vote, I won't count a review stating 'I want A to win instead of B but I don't want to sign in/don't have an account' I just won't count it. And just so you know, the final tallies for the poll was Four for Jaune and three for Weiss, but because of issue #1 I had to count it as a tie and did a best out of five coin flip; with fate saying two for Jaune and three for Weiss.  
So please in the future, just vote on my profile page.**


	3. Ruby Rose Vs Lie Ren

**Quarter-Finals**

**Ruby Rose vs. Lie Ren**

"Place your bets people, place your bets!" Yang said to the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR as Ruby and Ren entered the arena.

"Should I even mention how wrong it is that you're profiteering from our fights?" Blake Belladonna, the only one among the teens outside of Ruby to not partake in the betting, said in a state of complete disbelief, "This is your sister you're betting against,"

"Ah, no silly, I'm not that heartless, I'm betting for Ruby to win against Weiss and Nora, but betting that Ren wins against Pyrrha and Jaune," Yang whispered with a mischievous smirk before heading back to the rest of the teens, leaving a shocked Blake standing alone.

When it was their turn, Blake was going to enjoy beating some sense into her partner.

"Sooo… Ren right?" Ruby asked nervously as she noticed the blank expression on her opponents face, "You ready for the fight?"

"Yea, good luck," Ren said calmly.

"You don't talk much do you?" Ruby asked stupidly before quickly adding, "Oh, right, good luck to you too!"

With Ruby in the fight, it was up to Pyrrha to host the fight, so she went to the terminal and imputed 'random' into the Environment Generation Field. This time the marble arena vanished in favor of a forested area with a stream running through the middle.

Once again, the combatants synced up their scrolls.

"Ready!" as Pyrrha started the countdown; Ruby unsheathed Crescent Rose from her back and unfolded it into full scythe mode. She pulled the lever action back to load a bullet into the chamber.

"Set!" Ren crouched down into a martial stance as his weapons, StormFlower, appeared out of his sleeves; the crooked emerald blades shining in the sunlight.

"GO!" Ruby quickly swung her scythe so the barrel of the gun was pointed behind her, she then pulled the trigger to propel herself towards the Ren.

Foreseeing the attack, Ren performed a backflip just as Ruby tried to slice at him, the ninja then landed in a nearby tree and unloaded StormFlower at the younger teen; but she quickly used the recoil to dodge in a seemingly unpredictable pattern. Ruby then launched herself towards the tree that Ren was perched in and gave a strong horizontal slice. This caused the tree to fall on Ren and have him pinned.

As Ruby when to finish the fight early; Ren used his semblance to push the tree off of him and sent flying towards Ruby, who gave another swing to split the tree down the middle and have them fall at either side of her.

Ruby and Ren got into a melee after that. The younger teen tried to use the increased reach of her scythe to her advantage; unfortunately it had a relatively slow recovery time after a swing so Ren managed to get within her guard and got a few slashes with his curved blades, knocking down Ruby's aura so it was about the same as Ren's at twenty percent missing.

The younger of the two combatants swung her scythe horizontally, though Ren caught the shaft of the weapon in his bare hand with the help of his aura, Ruby pulled the trigger as the scythe blade was behind the ninja and Ren had to disengage and backflip to dodge the attack.

Taking the initiative, Ren sprinted forward with his two weapons suppressing fire at the hooded scythe-wielder, the attacks where relatively weak and felt like annoying hard pokes then bullets, but it was still draining Ruby's aura.

Once he was within range, Ruby swung her scythe and caught one of Ren's pistols by hooking her blade into his own. Ruby then fired Crescent Rose to hit Ren in the stomach and rend the pistol from his hands, leaving him with only one pistol left.

Ren then unloaded his remaining pistol at Ruby, but the Scythe-wielder twirled her weapon in front of her to form a protective barrier. The moment that Ren stopped firing to charge her, Ruby used a combination of her semblance and scythe recoil to launch herself towards him, Ren used a semblance fueled unarmed attack just as Ruby's outstretched boot collided with his palm. The impact of Semblance fueled attacks caused a shockwave that tore up the earth and knock down some trees.

As the dust settled, Ren was holding onto Ruby's boot; so he gave a quick pull to throw her off balance and gave a downward palm thrust to her stomach, slamming her into the ground while knocking Crescent Rose form her grasp. Ruby's Aura was in the yellow, about fifty percent at this point, so Ren still needed to deliver another blow to weaker his opponent's aura enough. As he gave another palm thrust the younger teen used her semblance to dodge out of the way.

When the ninja hit only the ground, he quickly looked around for his opponent, only to suddenly feel a punch to his face as a strong gust of wind, I.E. Ruby, went by. This continued several more times before Ren managed to anticipate Ruby's next attack and gave a swing of his remaining StormFlower. Ren was rewarded with catching Ruby by the hood with the blade getting snagged into the cloth; Ruby, who had been pulled back by the neck of her hood from the maneuver, and was out of breath as Ren tried to finish her off with one final attack.

Getting desperate, Ruby unbuttoned her hood form her blouse and rolled to the side to barely dodge Ren's boot stomp. She then ran to where Crescent Rose was lying by the stream with Ren in hot pursuit. Just as Ruby grabbed the scythe she gave a blind swing of her weapon as Ren loomed over her. Both weapons hit their mark, but it left only on as the winner.

Ren placed his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath, fighting Ruby had proven to be harder then the fight with the king Taijitu.

Ruby smiled to herself, pleased to have had battled such a strong opponent as Lie Ren, it was rare for her to find someone with enough skill to prove his equal in combat to her.

Pyrrha stood up and gave the announcement as to who had won, "The winner is Ren!"

It was a close fight too, for Ren's aura was in the yellow, just a mere millimeter from turning red, but Ruby's had managed to reach red first. The fight was truly one where it could have gone either way.

Ren walked over to Ruby, who was kneeling on the ground, and offered her a helping hand and a rare smile, "That was fun,"

"Yea, it could have gone either way easily, but you won fair and square," Ruby said with a cheeky grin.

As the two exited the arena, they came across a stern looking Blake as she said, "Ruby, can I talk to you about your sister?"

**Author's Note:**

**Smell that? That is the scent of a fuming little sister about to chew her big sis a new one for profiting from her loss. Anyway, this was a little shorter then I intended, but this was one of the hardest fights I ever written, mostly because Ruby and Ren's fighting styles are fairly one note, so I had difficulty thinking of ways to make it interesting. The easy part was actually the ending, because I wanted the fight to reflect the poll, which was close, like one vote difference close.**

**You know the drill, who do you think will win: The book smart Blake Belladonna or the troublesome Yang Xiao Long?**


	4. Blake Belladonna Vs Yang Xiao Long

**Quarter-Finals:**

**Blake Belladonna vs. Yang Xiao Long**

"You silly, stupid, Meany-head!" Ruby scolded her older sister, who was currently fidgeting with her hair nervously, only Ruby could cause the blonde brawler to get nervous and feel guilty.

After Blake had told Ruby about the rigged betting that Yang had been hosting with the other teens she went into complete upset little sister mode; calling her sister all the mean words that her tiny anger vocabulary contained, with nothing getting worse then the word stupid. It was quite a sight for the other teens, seeing the usually self-confident and guiltless Yang Xiao Long suffer under Ruby's scrutiny.

By the end of the scolding, Ruby demanded that Yang return the entire lien she had earned from everyone plus compensation for being 'a selfish Meany-head', as Ruby put it.

With that over, Ruby went to the terminal and input random into the system again to shift from the Forest to yet another setting. This one took the form of a fog covered outcropping of large jagged rock formations. Once the field was generated, Ruby took a seat up in the stands between Pyrrha and Weiss, a pouty expression still plastered across her face.

"Ahhh, is everything alright Ruby?" Pyrrha asked concernedly.

"Yea, I've never seen you like this," Weiss added.

"Yang has a serious gambling habit," Ruby explained, "she used to steal from our dad's wallet and go play Atlas hold'em with her friends, it's cost us the week's grocery money more than once,"

Pyrrha and Weiss suddenly felt very guilty for going along with Yang's betting.

Meanwhile, Blake and Yang each entered the arena, synced up their scrolls, and readied their respective weapons as Ruby started the countdown.

"Ready!" Blake unsheathed Gambol shroud and wielded both the katana-pistol and the sheath-cleaver with one in each hand. Her face was set and determined to beat her partner.

"Set!" Yang, still a little self-conscious of her upset sister, calmly loaded rocket rounds into Ember Cecelia and gave a two fist pumps to load the chambers.

"GO!" Yang immediately fired off two rockets at her opponent, the missiles homed in on Blake as the Faunus did a backflip and summoned an after image shadow with her semblance to take the hit for her. Blake then shifted the katana part of Gambol shroud into its compact form and launched it at Yang, the dagger imbedding itself into the brawler's gauntlet and pulling her towards the faunus, cleaver in hand.

With a harsh swing, she got Yang in the gut with the cleaver. The brawler threw a hard punch at Blake's face, knocking her off her feet and sent back. The Faunus used her cat reflexes to land on her feet and gave the ribbon attached to the grappling hook of Gambol shroud a twirl. Wrapping the ribbon around Yang's wrist and tried to pull her into another strike. But the Brawler was ready. She dug her feet into the ground and held her ground. With a strong pull of her own, Yang did an overhead toss and sent Blake flying through the air and onto the ground hard.

The Faunus twirled her arm to dislodge the grabbling hook from Yang's wrist and recovered it; with it back in hand she fired the pistol at her partner who ran behind a rock formation. Blake gave chase after her only for the rock formation to explode into many dozen sharp projectiles heading towards her.

Using a combination of her reflexes and semblance, Blake tried to dodge as many rocks as she could; all the while Yang was firing Rockets at the Faunus to add to the difficulty that she faced in dodging.

Just as Blake reached Yang, the brawler fired at her feet to launch herself into the air and on top of another rock formation, hoping to have the upper hand with higher ground as she fired more and more rockets at the Faunus. Blake dodged and weaved through the barrage, but she eventually came up with a reckless plan and shifted the katana half of Gambol shroud into its hook form and launched it at one of the rockets. To everyone's amazement the hook imbedded itself into the rocket, and acting as a pivot, Blake spun the rocket around her and effectively launched it back at Yang, who jumped off her perch to dodge the missile.

Losing her footing, Yang tumbled down the rock formation. Blake hooked gambol shroud into the rock and pulled herself up at Yang. The two blades of Gambol shroud became blurs as Blake hacked and slashed at the brawler. Once they passed each other Yang recovered enough to fire her gauntlets and redirect her own self after Blake; and the two got into a melee of fists and blades.

Blake quickly lost the upper hand as Yang switched ammunition for the incendiary shotgun shells; burning and clipping the Faunus with each punch. Needing to get out of the fight and recover; Blake summoned her semblance and launched herself upwards so quickly Yang didn't realize she was now fighting a decoy and the Faunus did a midair twirl and slash at Yang from above.

Yang suddenly stopped mid strike as the decoy vanished, but it wasn't the disappearance act that caused her to freeze. Blake's heart skipped a beat as she saw Yang staring at a single, golden strand of hair fall to the ground.

The Faunus watched in stunned horror as the Brawler's eyes twitched before shifting from lilac purple to light red. Yang bellowed something incoherent as fire enveloped her body and she charged at Blake with every intention of beating the life out of her.

Blake barely dodged in time to avoid Yang's ground pound; a massive crater forming around the blonde as she did. The Faunus then ran and dodged from rock formation to rock formation as Yang gave chase; destroying every outcropping as she hunted her partner.

Yang managed to catch up to Blake on the last, and tallest, rock formation and destroyed it as Blake was atop it. The Faunus dodged and weaved through the rocks as she fell towards the enraged brawler. While standing on a falling Rock the two partners charged each other for a final strike. Yang gave a strong punch towards Blake's head, but the Faunus leaned back and slid of her knees underneath Yang and gave a dual swipe of her katana and cleaver at the blonde's legs, tripping her up, and knocking her aura into the red.

"And the winner is- Ruby started before shouting in horror, "Yang look out!"

Yang barely heard her little sister call her name as she turned on her back after hitting the ground and saw a large boulder falling towards her; with her aura in the red, there was no way she could survive the crushing weight of the falling rock.

A shadow passed over Yang's vision and there was a loud crash; for a moment, she thought she had died.

But as she opened her eyes she found the boulder spilt in two, each half on either side of her, standing by her with her cleaver raised as Blake.

"Blake?" Yang asked as her semblance wore off and she regained her sanity. Blake silently offered her hand and the brawler took it, "Sorry for all the betting?"

"Sorry for ratting you out," Blake said as she pulled her partner up onto her feet.

"Yang!" Ruby shouted as she practically tackled her sister as she clung to her neck in a reassuring hug, "You alright sis?"

"Yea, I'm fine Ruby, and I'm very sorry for letting my gambling habit get the better of me today," Yang apologized sincerely as she hugged her sister back.

"YAY, CLOSURE!" Nora shouted as she popped up from between the hugging sisters.

"NORA!"

**Author's note:**

**I couldn't resist having Nora embarrass the touching moment between Ruby and Yang; it just seemed so appropriate for some reason. Anyway, the poll for this one was genuinely shocking for me, I expected Blake and Yang to be tied for the near entirety of the time I had it open, but it ended with six for Blake and only two for Yang. There will be an interlude chapter as I think four fights were enough for teams RWBY and JNPR for one day. The fights in the semi-finals will be Nora Valkyrie vs Weiss Schnee, and Lie Ren vs. Blake Belladonna. But while I write the interlude chapter, you will vote on which fight goes first after the break, just to shake things up a bit.  
Also, please review, don't write your vote in them, but give me feedback on how well you think I'm doing.**


	5. Interlude: Reflections

**Interlude**

**Reflections**

Weiss unceremoniously threw her back to the mildly soft comfort of her bed sheets as she reflected on today's events. It had been getting late by the time Blake and Yang's duel had finished and Ruby had called that enough for the day, and that they'd pick the tournament back up tomorrow.

"Stupid Ruby," Weiss muttered to herself as she thought about the fact that she was dragged into this silly exercise, both literally and metaphorically, by her partner and leader. Also on how she was now too exhausted to focus on her homework and conceded to turning in for the night.

"Stupid Yang," The Heiress scolded the troublesome blonde when thinking about the lien she had been ripping off of everyone, even if everyone got their money returned with compensation, so that wasn't so bad.

"Stupid, imbecilic, obsessive flirt of a fool Jaune!" Weiss scolded with barely contained anger written across her face. If it weren't for a combination of that goofball's abhorred lack of fighting skills, his constant hitting on her, and her own pride hanging on the line; Weiss would be out of the tournament and be able to focus on her homework, if not tonight then at least tomorrow. But now she was in the semi-finals of the tournament, and she knew that if she refused that Ruby would literally drag her to the battlefield if it came to it.

"_You're really cute when you're angry,"_ Remembering that simple complement, though she would never admit it as one, caused her blood to boil, _'how dare he call me cute, who does he think he is?'_

She rolled onto her side and tried to get some shut eye

V

"Yay, you and I are going to round two!" Nora cried excited as she skipped around Ren in a circle while the rest of Team JNPR headed to their dorms for the night.

"Nora," Ren began.

"You and I will totally sweep the competition!" Nora proclaimed with a fist raised to the ceiling.

"Nora," Ren persisted with the patience that only spending the majority of your life with the hyperactive girl could give.

"You and I will win the tournament and win prizes together, well not '_together'_ together-

"NORA!" Ren exclaimed, realizing that shouting would be the only way to get her attention.

"Yes Ren?" Nora asked calmly as she gave her full attention to her childhood friend and _somewhat_ secret crush.

"You are aware that if we both beat our opponents in round two that we would have to fight each other right afterwards, right?" Ren asked.

"Why of course we'd- Nora's eyes suddenly bulged, "WHAT!"

"Nora calm down,"

"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN? I'D HAVE TO FIGHT YOU AND I DON'T WANNA AND-

"NORA!" Ren shouted again.

"Yes Ren?" Nora asked as she shifted from her crazed rant to serene calm on a dime and looked at the martial artist quizzically.

"Pickled apples," Ren said simply, Nora's eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head as she fainted. Ren deafly caught her into his arms to prevent her from falling. The boy turned his gaze to the rest of his team who had their jaws to the floor, Ren only shrugged as he said, "You're guess is as good as mine,"

Now carrying a sleeping Nora who was subconsciously sucking her thumb, Team JNPR entered their dorm room.

**Author's Note:**

**I'd never said that it would be a long interlude chapter. I intended to have Blake's perspective and reflections on the current standings of the tournament, but I couldn't think of anything interesting for her to think about.**

**Unsurprisingly, Nora vs. Weiss won as the first ones to go first, so I will ask you to vote on who you think would win in the fight.**


	6. Battle of the Relunctant Fighters

**Sorry for the long wait, I've had writers block again so this took a while. Also, I sent in a little hint as to a future project in the RWBY fandom within this story.**

**Semi-Finals:**

**Nora Valkyrie vs. Weiss Schnee**

"GOOOOOD MORNING TEAM RWBY!" Weiss fell out of her bed at Ruby's announcement, and at the moment she didn't know whether to thank or scold her partner for the rude awakening. Weiss would want to scold her because, well, she was startled by the shouting and wanted to sleep in on the weekend, and she always hated getting woken up so abruptly. But she also wanted to thank Ruby because she had interrupted a terrifying nightmare involving a certain blonde. The worst part was that Weiss wasn't sure what was worse: the fact she even HAD the dream, or the fact that she seemed to have actually ENJOYED the dream at the time.

'_Intolerable flirt-fiend,'_ Weiss scolded the focus of her dream as she got her clothing from her drawer and headed to the bathroom to change in private. Meanwhile Ruby was already leaving Team RWBY's dorm and went across the hall to knock on JNPR's door. When no reply came she pulled out a boom microphone, "REMNANT TO TEAM JNPR! THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!"

The door opened to reveal Ren with his hair a mess and his eyes droopy as he said sleepily, "Do you have any idea what time it is Ruby?"

"Time for an early breakfast so we can get on with the tournament," Ruby exclaimed excitedly. She then peaked around the martial artist to see Pyrrha and Jaune's beds vacant and Nora still snoring, "where's Jaune and Pyrrha? And why is Nora still sleeping?"

"Jaune had early practice with Pyrrha, and I activated Nora's sleep trigger last night," Ren explained before he looked back at his sleeping partner and lifelong friend before saying monotonously, "Fried guacamole,"

"YES REN! I WILL MARRY- oh hi guys," Nora shouted as she sat straight up in her bed, she looked perfectly awake and alert as though she wasn't in a deep sleep a nanosecond ago.

"Good, now that you guys are up, me and my team will be at breakfast," Ruby then activated her semblance and seemingly vanished in a cloud of rose pedals as Ren closed the door to get ready.

"So, today is round two?" Nora asked in an unusually nervous tone as she gathered her combat gear and headed to the bathroom as Ren got into his own outfit.

"Yep," Ren said though the door separating him and Nora as he tied his shoes.

"And if we both win we'll have to fight each other, right?" Nora questioned further.

"IF we both win, yes," Ren said as he hid StormFlower up his sleeves, "Nora? You aren't worried about the potential chance of fighting me are you?"

"What? No, of course not… I-I just…" Nora walked out of the bathroom and saw the 'I know you're hiding something Nora' look Ren had and she gulped hard as she said, "Ren I-

"OH THANK YOU DUST FOR THE INVENTION OF BEDS!" Jaune shouted as he burst through the door and collapsed on his mattress, completely covered in sweat under his black hoodie. The two friends watched in amazement as Jaune simply fell asleep right in front of them. Pyrrha soon casually walked into the dorm as she stretched out the stiffness in her joints.

"What did you do to him?" Ren asked in amazement.

Pyrrha simply shrugged before replying, "Double workout for losing so badly to Weiss yesterday,"

"Yea well, Ruby wants everyone at the cafeteria early so we can get round two started," Ren explained before looking at Jaune, "Should we do anything?"

"Leave him be, this is probably the best he's felt in the past twenty-four hours," Pyrrha said as Jaune suddenly mumbled something in his sleep about a 'Snow Angel', causing a slight frown to appear on Pyrrha's face as the conscious members of Team JNPR headed out the dorm for the cafeteria.

"Say, Nora? What were you going to tell me?" Ren asked as Nora started fidgeting.

"Oh… nothing too important,"

V

"Of course that Lunkhead is out cold!" Weiss shouted in the cafeteria as Pyrrha explained the JNPR leader's current condition. The Heiress had managed to convince Ruby that if Jaune was up to it, that he could take her place in the tournament so she could work on her homework; a fraction of which she was currently working on over a plate of sausage and eggs.

"He's absolutely exhausted from the exercise I put him through this morning," Pyrrha elaborated with a guilty expression on her face.

"Don't beat yourself up Pyrrha; that tends to happen to a young man when you-

"YANG!" Ruby and Pyrrha interrupted simultaneously before the blonde could finish her lewd comment. So she simply took a sloooooow lick of one of her sausage links while looking at Pyrrha with a wink; causing the huntress to blush and gag.

"Can we get back on track people? My grade is depending on it!" Weiss complained without so much as looking away from her essay.

"Relax Weiss, just beat Nora quickly and you can get back to your precious homework," Blake reasoned. Weiss simply scolded Blake in her mind, beating Nora would mean that she would have to partake in the final round and waste even more time on a pointless exercise then on her homework.

But then an idea formed in her head, if she gave the fight to Nora she could get out of this tournament quickly.

Little did The Heiress know that her opponent was planning the exact same thing for very different reasons?

V

"It is now time for the second round of the Tournament!" Ruby shouted as she addressed the group before her, which consisted of everyone but Jaune, "Match one of round two will be Nora Valkyrie vs. Weiss Schnee!"

With that the two huntresses-in-training took their spots in the arena as Ruby imputed random into the machine; with most of the field disappearing and leaving the two huntresses on an old fashioned rope bridge connected at both ends to stone pillars.

"Ready!" as Ruby started the countdown, the Huntresses synced up their scrolls. Nora readied her weapon in grenade form; planning to destroy the bridge, she figured that Weiss could summon a glyph platform to save herself; winning the fight for the heiress in one shift move.

"Set!" Weiss shifted Myrtenaster to its red dust setting, so she could burn the bridge. Weiss had seen Nora propel herself with the power of her hammer, so she figured she could lose easily to the wild child with her well thought out plan.

"GO!" At the exact moment that Ruby finished the countdown, Nora fired her grenade launcher at the center of the bridge while Weiss summoned fire in the same place. The bridge snapped in the middle and the two huntresses plummeted towards the digital abyss; both refusing to help the other's plan reach fruition.

Realizing something was wrong; Weiss summoned a glyph platform underneath Nora, saving her from the abyss. Nora, who quickly realized what was happening, fired her grenade launcher at Weiss and propelled her at the stone pillar behind her. This destroyed Weiss' concentration on the glyph and Nora started plummeting again. So the Heiress summoned another glyph, this one with a repulsive effect, and trampoline the pink themed girl onto the opposite stone pillar.

"WHAT WAS THAT!" Ruby called to the combatants through her boom microphone, "YOU GUYS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FIGHTING EACH OTHER, NOT PREVENT EACH OTHER FROM LOSING!"

"I don't want to win because I want to focus on my homework rather than this silly tournament!" Weiss shouted at Ruby from across the chasm.

"And I don't want to win because… reasons!" Nora shouted nervously.

"WELL IF YOU SPEND THE WHOLE BATTLE TRYING TO PREVENT THE OTHER FROM LOSING, WE'LL BE HERE ALL DAY!" Ruby reasoned.

"How about a truce Nora?" Weiss offered, "We give it our all, and whoever loses, loses,"

"Then to the loser goes the spoils, got it!" Nora agreed. She quickly followed up with a grenade shout at the Heiress; who summoned a glyph to block it. The wild child then switched Magnhild to its hammer form and propelled herself, like she did in the emerald forest fighting the Deathstalker, towards Weiss' pillar and did a ground smash into the top of the stone monolith.

Weiss lost her footing as the top of the stone pillar crumbled and she fell off the side of the pillar. The Heiress righted herself midair and thrust Myrtenaster into the side of the pillar, stopping her plummet. She then expertly climbed out the weapon to stand on its handle, the thin weapon being sturdy enough to hold her weight. She bent down and removed a vial of light blue Dust from its cartridge and smashed in it her hands, rubbing her hands in the substance just as Nora started firing a barrage of grenades at the Heiress.

Weiss did a quick but precise series of gestures with her dust covered hands; summoning a wall of ice shooting horizontal from the side of the pillar, blocking her from the grenades.

Nora switched Magnhild to its hammer form again as she leaped down and planned to smash the ice roof over Weiss' head; though when she collided with the structure and shattered she found no sign of Weiss as she continued to plummet. Nora quickly slammed Magnhild into the rock face as she looked around for the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company.

The wild child noticed a series of white glyphs all along the surface of the pillar, and soon found Weiss skating along the _side_ of the pillar as easily as one might do it on flat ground. Nora quickly dislodged Magnhild from the pillar, shifted it to grenade launcher mode, and fired straight down to propel herself up at the Heiress. The two collided in Hammer and Rapier, and soon it became the most complicated melee possibly executed by anyone as Nora had to rapidly switch of firing a grenade below her to keep herself elevated and swing at the horizontal Schnee.

Soon Nora fired a few grenades more in succession so she was above Weiss in elevation as she slammed the hammer down towards the Schnee and it her hard, knocking her off her glyphs and sent her plummeting. Weiss shifted Myrtenaster to its Violet dust setting and channeled it into a glyph. Stopping her in place within a black ring of energy as Weiss slingshot herself towards where Nora was clinging to the pillar. As Weiss zoomed through the air like a missile she shifted Myrtenaster to its ice form and froze Nora in place with an ice missile to hold her in place.

And when Weiss collided with Nora, the whole pillar cracked in half as the impact sent Nora plummeting into the abyss.

With that the arena shifted back to its default state and Ruby called the winner, "Weiss takes the win in a literal landslide!"

"What!" Weiss shouted as she realized she had won yet again

"Yay!" Nora exclaimed from the ground. Weiss sighed in defeat as she offered a hand to Nora and pulled her up on her feet.

"I guess you lose fair and square Nora," Weiss admitted, "Say, You never explained why you didn't want to win,"

Nora looked at Ren from the stands as she whispered to Weiss, "We all do crazy things when we like like someone,"

"Hey guys, what did I miss?" a familiar voice from Weiss' recent dream/nightmare spoke from behind her as she turned around and found the lunkhead walking up to them.

"YOU!" Weiss shouted as she charged the clumsy knight screaming, "Where were you twenty minutes ago! Do you realize I could have gotten out of this mess of a tournament if you had shown up on time-

The rest of Teams RWBY and JNPR watched Jaune try to outrun the fuming heiress as Yang whispered in her little sister's ear with a smirk, "twenty lien that the author of this story writes a Jaune/Weiss fanfiction,"

"That, my dearest sister, is a bet I will take part in,"

_**Author's note:**_

**This was also a close one in the polls. You know the drill, who will win: Blake or Ren?**


End file.
